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'Black Power' painted on Philly mayor statue

Sean Rossman
USA TODAY
Shown is a statue of the late Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo, who also served as the city's police commissioner outside the Municipal Services Building in Philadelphia on Friday. Late Thursday, someone spray painted "Black Power" on the statue.

Philadelphia Police said a vandal spray painted "Black Power" on a statue of former Philadelphia mayor and police commissioner Frank Rizzo, a controversial city personality that some say discriminated against minorities.

Officer Troy Brown with the Philadelphia Police Department said police were tipped off to the incident late Thursday. Officers said someone wrote "Black Power" in white spray paint on the statue along with "The Black community should be their own police" on the steps of the Municipal Services Building. The Rizzo statue stands outside the Center City building, which houses city government offices.

Police have a suspect in custody, but did not yet identify the person.

Rizzo's statue has been as controversial as the man. In his New York Times obituary from 1991, the newspaper described the 70-year-old as a "barely educated former police officer who used a hard line on crime and tactics bordering on the dictatorial to suppress opposition and keep blacks out of middle-class neighborhoods."

The incident comes less than a week after violent clashes in Charlottesville, Va., over the removal of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. On Monday, protesters in Durham, N.C., tore down a statue of a Confederate soldier, and on Wednesday, the city of Baltimore removed several Confederate statues.

About a year ago, Philly.com reported a pair of protesters draped a Ku Klux Klan hood over the Rizzo statue. It was removed by police about 20 minutes later.

Philly.com also reported that city crews cleaned the paint off the statue early Friday.

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